Jan G. Laitos

John A Carver, Jr. Professor of Law Constitutional Law Environmental and Natural Resources Law B.A., 1968, Yale University J.D., 1971, University of Colorado S.J.D., 1975, University of Wisconsin Jan Laitos holds the John A. Carver Jr. Chair at the Sturm College of Law. He is a regional board member of the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute; and since 1981 a Trustee of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation. He was Vice Chair of the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission. He was also the Director of the nationally ranked Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program at the University of Denver Law School from 1981 until 2004. In 1996, he was given the University of Denver’s distinguished Teaching Award, and in 2005, he was selected a “DU Law Star.” Prior to joining the faculty at the Law school, he was the law clerk to the Chief Justice for the Colorado Supreme Court, and an attorney with the Office of Legal Counsel within the United States Department of Justice.

He is the author of several books and treatises, published by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, West Academic, Foundation Press, Aspen, Wolters Kluwer, Duke University Press, and Bradford Press.

He has worked as a consultant on several cases decided by the 9th Circuit Court of Federal appeals, the Montana Supreme Court, the Nevada Supreme Court, the Idaho Supreme court, and the Colorado Supreme Court, and on several cert. petitions before the United States Supreme Court.

He has lectured at Austral University Law School in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the European Network for Housing Research Institute in Istanbul, Turkey, at the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, the National University of Ireland at Galway, Ireland, the University of Oslo, Norway, the University of Tarragona, Spain, the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the University of Western Sydney, Australia.

Featured Publications

 Law of Property Rights Protection: Limitation on Governmental Powers 2nd ed. (Wolters Kluwer 2018).

 Natural Resources Law 3rd ed. (West Academic 2018).

 Regulation of Toxic Substances and Hazardous Waste 3rd ed. (Foundation Press 2018).

 The Paralysis Paradox and the Untapped Role of Science in Solving “Big” Environmental Problems, 30 Georgetown Envtl. Law Review 409 (2018).

 Why Environmental Policies Fail, Cambridge Univ. Press (2017).

 The Right of Nonuse, Oxford Univ. Press (2013).

 Hornbook on Natural Resources Law, West Academic (2015).

 The Strange Career of Private Takings of Private Property for Private Use, 5 William and Mary Property Rights Journal 125 (2016).

 Takings Law in Colorado, in Environmental Regulation of Colorado Real Property, Book chapter (Colorado Bar Assoc. 2016).

 The Gardener and the Sick Garden: How Not to Address the Planet's Environmental Issues, 45 Envtl. L. Rep. 10391 (May 2015).

 Principles of Natural Resources Law (West Academic 2014).